With one Ranger already in the box, Rosajoke peoples elbows Letang.5 on 3. Gonch wires it in from the point.

3-0.

Somehow, the Rangers came out of the first with the advantage in shots.But there's a guy in net who is hot.And we're talking about Frank Pietrangelo in Games 6 and 7 of the Patrick Division semifinals against the Devils in 1991 hot.

All you have to do is let him see the puck.The first period had nothing on the second, though.

The only other thing that happened was Rosajoke getting crushed by a high stick.

It was all Double J's fault.Talbot was there, hoping to get another phantom high-stick call.

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INTERMISSION

Amidst the Verizon text-message thing during one of the intermissions,a brave human out there sent "Hungry Hungry Hippos!" to the screen.What a moment.

But that moment was topped by Vinnie from the X, who was hosting all the trivia questions and stuff during breaks in the action.He was rocking a WWGRD wristband plain as day.

.......................................................

A call came into Pittsburgh precinct roughly around 8:00, saying that an unidentified male, 6'3", 230 lbs, weird hair, shirt tucked in pants, was trying to bang the puck home.

Ty Conklin arrives at the scene and hands outs Razor's Edges to everyone.

Shot. Save.Shot. Save.Shot. Save.

The Rangers completely dominated the action in the second period, outshooting the world 17-2.

But there was Ty Conklin and his defensive corps, turning everything aside.There weren't even any close calls. All in a day's work.

Picture: All Star Scott Gomez trying to set up a scoring chance.Must be the cameras at the Mellon Arena. It would seem Gomez is invisible.

Nothign really else happened in the second.Pens got called for another pentaly.

Staal and Hall get a late chance.No dice.

................................................................

Lord Therrien had the Pens on cruise control to start the third.

The thought of another Malkin hat trick danced in everyone's head.Speaking of heads, tonight was a ski-cap giveaway night.If the writers weren't on strike, we'd say this was scripted.

Digressing, the Pens could afford to shove Malkin into the spotlight to get another hat trick.It almost signaled the end of the world.

Not even two minutes into the third, Crosby lunges for a puck that gets sent to Malkin going full speed in the slot.Malks goes down on one knee, doesn't know what's going on.

You watch him routinely fly full speed into the boards, as he usually does.And then you saw #87...

Flashback blog

The world stopped turning during the 8 seconds it took for Crosby and Malkin to get up in Lemieux, one-knee, weight of his body on his stick to get up fashion.

The sigh of relief from the Pens faithful in Mellon Arena actually caused some 5-year-old kid in section C32 to die from carbon-monoxide poisoning.

The drama wasn't over, though.

The next two penalties on the Penguins were legit.Crosby is a jobber and definitely interfered.He's smart. He knows what he's doing.

The Pens kill that off beautifully.

As Crosby gets out of the box, the Pens go right back in.

Malkin was racing with some terd for a loose puck.If you hit someone who does not have the puck, it's a penalty.When you knock a person down in a race for a puck, that's interference.

The emotion was running high, and it was culminated with Jagr spoiling the shutout party.

Double J Style

3-1.

Jagr booing had died off as of late, but this game, for whatever reason, brought the heat.Big-time.

We take the time to give it to Doc Emerick, for his jobber remark back in the first period.Something along the lines of:

"And here are the Penguins fans booing Jagr.They must have forgotten about those two Stanley Cup championships."

And then he just jumped right back into calling the action.This is one of the few times the award has been given endearingly.What a line.

Right after that Jagr goal, morale was lower than Rosie O'Donnell's metabolism rate.You could feel the Rangers being able to come back.

Crosby headed into the zone after that Jagr goal, and he was decked.HE HAD THE PUCK. HE GOT HIT. That's what hockey is about. Good no-call.

Just as Crosby is ready to take the next faceoff, Therrien shuts everything down and sends Laraque onto the ice.

It is met with a raucous roar from the Mellon Arena faithful.An unbelievable roar.

With that move alone, the Pens regained the momentum.It was a subtle yet essentially game-clinching move by Therrien.

He knows it.

Laraque came on and hit some ass-clown in the Pens zone. Huge roar.

The Pens were helped with a ticky-tacky slashing call which sent them on the powerplay and sent Malkin back on the hunt. No dice there.

The puck wasn't gonna get past Conklin. It just wasn't gonna happen.

Malkin ended up delivering on the hat trick with a Gretzky empty-netter from center ice.

4-1.

Picture: All Star Scott Gomez tries to stop Malkin from scoring

Game.

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STATS

Malkin: 3G

Bing: 2A

Gonch: 1G

Conk: 43 saves --- sick

MISC

When you went to sleep last night, you thought to yourself, "Where would the Pens be without Ty Conklin?" That is just insane.

Sid and Geno are just magical on the ice right now. I haven't been that excited at a game this year. Every time those guys hit the ice, I expected to be awed.

Thank you guys for finally giving an accurate assessment of both interference calls in the third, and the non-call on Sid after those calls. Even Grover was erroneously harping on the refs for those calls after the game.

Exactly... it was sweet redemption for Malkin to go out and show the hockey world what he can do after being snubbed for the All-Star game. It was even better that it was the only hockey game last night.

I second everything fleury29/barrasso35/conklin35 said (except for the being in Pittsburgh in a month part sadly). It's great to have some Pens fans to interact with. All I have to look forward to for the next 3 months sports coverage-wise here in Texas is bitching about Tony Romo going to Mexico before the Giants game.

The last time these two teams played Crosby was on acid, but for whatever reason all his tearing through the neutral zone and into the Rangers end didn't mean a thing.

This time he still flew through Ranger backcheckers like pylons at the Quarterback Challenge, but the Rangers were hemmed in, penalties drawn and goals scored. Piss poor Rangers effort, otherworldly Cros and Geno effort and unreal Pensblog effort. Solid.

One thing...someone needs to buy him a roll of white tape. When you're watching on TV, every time he gets some action on the near side and then jumps back into position, that black tape knob at the end of his stick is positioned perfectly so it looks like a puck rolling into the back of the net. Almost crapped my pants 20 times in the past few games. Whew...

FYI: Pens v. Rangers REPLAY on Vs. at 430p today for anyone who wants to relive the sweet W again OR if your TiVo was on the Rag (pun intended) & didn't record (dwayne)...waiting to see "Rock out with your Conk out" on the verizon jumbotron...would it make it thru the text-police????

I saw it a little differently. He couldn't get up and off of Sid because Sid was jobbing him back by holding onto his stick and tying him up. I'm sure some words were being exchanged too in the eternity that they were down. Probably something like..."apparently you didn't see me kick Ferrence's ass..."

Blades, you might be right. I was sitting in D right behind that so I didn't have the best visual, that's just how it looked to me and the rest of the people in my section, hence Booblog.

Pensbob - Conklin needs 4 more starts by my calculations to get into the NHL stats dept, although not sure why so many people are concerned with that. It's 1/3 of all possible active games played rounded down.

Also, according to TSN both Letang and Kennedy have made the youngstars game: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=227346&hubname=nhl

First game I've been to since Bing bobblehead night against the Devils in mid Nov. the difference in intensity from the players and the fans was awesome. Bing was beyond another planet last night. I don't know if anyone saw the guy propose to his girlfriend in B1 in the middle of the second, I was waiting for Conk to come over the glass and claim her for himself.

The Bing and Malkin show last night was insane. Conkblock is the f-ing man....can anyone believe the way this guy is playing right now!!! Congrats to the Pens for tying it up for 1st place in the Atlantic and Congrats to Bing for tying it up with Vinny from Tampa in the points race. I'm sure we all heard the comment that Doc Emerick made last night about Jagr. But what about the comments Jags made about the city of Pittsburgh before leaving the Pens, "I feel like I'm dying alive in this city." Stanley Cup Championships aside, you don't say that about a city that has supported you throughout your career in a sport that you love. I'm not even from Pittsburgh, and it pisses me off that a jag off like that would say that about Pittsburgh.

Great game. Couldn't watch it live because I had to go to a bourbon dinner (trying to convince myself if I am being educated while I'm drinking then it is not really adding to a problem, right?) and being on the West Coast, but I did DVR it to watch when I got home. I think the eight bourbons added to the enjoyment of the Geno hit because I kept rewinding to watch it over and over again. (I'll have to try it sober when I get home from work.)

Anyway, great re-cap (as always). One question about the top of the page photo -- is Conklin spelled differently at the top of the album cover than it is on the bottom. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't the bourbon. Great cover regardless. I echo the comments about out-of-state fans having a forum to interact with likeminded people. Keep up the good work.

What a game. What a recap. Who woulda thought we were gonna go on a streak similar to the 'fluke' one of last year, and around the same time? And Conkblock... This is somethin else right now. I bow down to the Pens.

And Pensblog Charlie wrote on my facebook wall! I feel honored.. and slightly turned on. Pensblog Charlie is also a mere one letter away from being pretty homoerotic, and an even more fitting name. Good stuff.

Jesse > No worries, up in our seats in F4, we thought the same thing you did. It looked like to us that Bing was being pinned down which, of course, pissed off the whole section and yes: Booblog. Of course, what we see isn't always what happens... but hey, what can you do? It still brought the fans together in one loud boo fest.

I tried to get a Conk Block text of some sort by my fingers are too slow for damn texting. I want to spell everything out really nicely and not write like a moron...

jesse- I'm usually not concerned with stats either, but to have our third goalie who no one expected good things from to be leading the league in several stats is pretty amazing to me. I just hope he can keep it up.

Don't know if it's been said or not, but two more of the Pens players are heading to Atlanta. LeGame and Mr. Kennedy will be in the Young Stars game. Now if the jokers who picked the teams would put Malkin on the All-Star team, we'd be in business.

"Right after that Jagr goal, morale was lower than Rosie O'Donnell's metabolism rate." favorite line from your recap. you guys crack me up. i am busy converting all pens fans to your site, so no obviousblog today. Ridonkulous, the way they are playing. . . Is that you Pensbob? "amber alert" darkstar.

Some things don't need to said they can only be felt. A good buzz. A good lay. Being at the arena to witness the Chernobyl meltdown of thr Rangers. Wow. Rosi getting his world rocked by Lord Malkin. All hail Lord Malkin king of the puck luggers and torturer of the net twine.

You who wear and worship those with the flying P shall feel his wrath of the twine. Cower like the wimpering philth you are.

the curse has come full circle. just as predicted, the recchi trade will doom us for sure now... SID BREAM is back in Pittsburgh! the pirates will win the pennant this year and the pens will fall... noooooo